"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

 

 

It took me a little while to write up something on Gatsby because I really wanted to do it justice. For those who have not had the chance to read it should do so and those who have read it in elementary or high school but have not since then should because I guarantee you will not view it the same way you once did. It felt really good to revisit this book and upon reading it after five years of forgetting its existence I felt that I saw these characters with fresh new eyes. I had remembered this book being about change in the American lifestyles that could have resulted in something more progressive. Oh how wrong I was, this is not a novel about hope. This is about the crumbling American Dream and the world that Fitzgerald portrays to us is filled with deception. The very things in the novel that were considered admirable are tainted by greed and corruption.

 
SPOILERS!
 

I have always thought this novel was written in an interesting way because the narrator is not the main character. Nick Carraway is the most redeeming character of the novel but there is no perfect person here. The story itself is centered on Mr. Gatsby and his absence during the beginning of the book helps build up his character in such a way that and the unraveling of his perfectly glamorous life, but behind closed doors he is a bootlegger, a home wrecker, and rumored to be a murder; but he is charming so I suppose in Nick’s eyes that allows a pardon. His love interest, Daisy, was completely different than I remembered her. Five years ago I read her dialogue without reading the subtext. She is not a ditzy socialite…oh no no no. Beneath those blonde curls of hers is a manipulative and deceitful degenerate. She may even be the worst of them all being an adulteress, murderer, is estranged from her child, and she eventually abandons Gatsby and lets him take the blame for her mishaps. In reality, the only thing that Daisy really loved in life was wealth and herself. Yet, I couldn’t help but love them both and their dynamic is very sweet. I cannot wait to see it put to screen.

 

Oh Leo you're looking a little yellow these days!

 

 

Stylistically speaking, Fitzgerald threw in so much symbolism that one could write a book about the book. The color yellow seems to symbolize deceit or corruption, we have the eyes on the billbored (the eyes of God are upon us), and so many references to the American Dream. I know that some people may find such frills uninteresting but one of my favorite professors in college always told me to look for the small things. It may tell you a little history about the author when he or she did not intend to place it in there. In this case Fitz places the symbolism to provoke thought for the current state of America in the 1920s. He was feeling disillusioned with the state of America and with his own wife Zelda. So, this novel is all about the subtext but I wont talk about everything since some of you will probably stop reading after the first 750 pages.

 

At the surface, everything seems perfect and put together lined in silver and gold. The rich sit on their lawns and throw glamorous parties and live in expensive lavished homes but the insides are all fake and shallow. One character is even surprised when he drunkenly stumbles into Gatsby’s library to find that his books were all real! I would venture the books were probably the most real thing in all the novel. Underneath it all Gatsby is tainted by his over eagerness to win his dream, Daisy has all she ever wanted but she has grown so completely bored with life, her husband Tom is just as bored as she is so he becomes a woman beater and takes up a mistress. What a sad love triangle, or technically square with Wilson and his wife…wait polygon? I’ve never been good with math.

 

Anyhow, so you ask “what’s the deal with the green light?”

 

I am so glad you asked! One of the first scenes in which we are introduced to the great Mr. Gatsby he stands alone on a dock reaching for a green light across the way. Since the major theme of this novel is the American Dream, Gatsby represents those who were reaching for it. In turn, the light and the light’s owner (Daisy) represents his unattained dream. The saddest part of the novel is really when he attains it, or so he thinks.  It was very touching when I read the reunion between Daisy and Gatsby, but you are left with a subtle tone that suggests that perhaps the yearning for something might be more powerful than actually getting all that you ask for. Fitzgerald experienced this for himself with wealth and fame with his golden haired beauty by his side. Daisy is the crux of the whole book, she is why there are giant parties at Gatsby’s house, she is why Myrtle kicks the bucket, and she is why our great American anti-hero gets killed in the end. Jay got a little too greedy in attaining his dream and paid the ultimate price.

All in all this was an excellent read, even more so than I had remembered. The complexities of the characters really expanded for me this time and I was sad when it ended. Frankly there is way too much to talk about with this novel to place in one post. Take a gander for yourself but next I will see you in the theatres!

P.S. Any suggestions for my next read?